In a Moment's Hesitation
by Ben-Max
Summary: An AU story from ROTJ where Darth Vader does not act in time to save Luke from the Emperor


In a Moment's Hesitation  
  
In this alternate universe tale, it approaches the climax from "Return of the Jedi" when the Emperor is killing Luke and Darth Vader finally turns from the dark side and kills the Emperor. But in this story, he acts only a moment too late.  
  
"Now young Skywalker...you will die." An evil grin spread over the Emperor's face, but it vanished into a sneer as Force Lightning shot from his fingertips and hit Luke, who once more screamed in pain.  
  
Darth Vader stood at his master's side and watched as his son screamed and writhed on the floor. As he watched, something began to happen to him. A change. A tiny light flickered inside of him. Like the flicker of a match on a moonless night, but a light nonetheless. The light began to grow. And grow.  
  
(What...what is happening to me?) A voice responded in his mind, ("I have watched this from deep within for too long. The night has ended.")  
  
Darth Vader felt a throb in his chest and he clenched his eyes shut in pain. When he opened them, everything had changed. (It is as if I am seeing the world for the first time again...)Anakin Skywalker had been reborn. He looked at his master, then down at his son, who had stopped screaming, but still squirmed from the pain. (No. I will not watch my son die the same way as Padme!)  
  
Anakin turned to face the Emperor and picked him up off the ground. Force Lightning spewed from the Emperor's hands, but now fell back onto himself and Anakin. He gritted his teeth at the pain and trudged on towards a shaft to the core of the Deathstar. He felt the heat of the lightning begin to slightly deform the shape of his mask.  
  
Once he had gotten close enough, Anakin heaved the Emperor over the edge of the balcony. He leaned over and watched as the Emperor's echoed screams got smaller and smaller until a rush of blue fire came up the shaft and blew Anakin to the ground. He had grown weak and his breath came out hoarse.  
  
He turned to look at his son. He still laid on the floor, not moving very much. Not much more than his chest faintly rise and fall in shallow breaths.  
  
Anakin grunted as he got to his knees and crawled over to his son. He pulled him up onto his lap. Only then did Luke open his eyes. "Father...I'm dying..."  
  
Anakin looked down at his son and tried to muffle his sobbing. "I know...Luke, I am taking...my mask off. I want...us to look eye to eye...just once..."  
  
Luke's eyes opened a little bit more and he said, "No, Father!...You'll die...too. Just...leave me..."  
  
Anakin shook his head. "Nothing...can stop that now...I want to see you...through my own eyes...just once..." Anakin lifted his hands and pulled the helmet off. He dropped it with a thud to the floor. He then placed his hands behind his head to peel off the mask. Fear ran its way through his body. The fear for his son to see what he had been hiding now for over 20 years. He could feel Luke's fear, too. But they could be scared together. Anakin slowly pulled off the mask and looked into his son's eyes.  
  
Luke gasped softly and tears began to fall onto his cheeks. Seeing his son cry just made Anakin cry as well. "I am sorry, Luke...I am...so sorry."  
  
"It's okay...Father...I came here...to bring you to the good side...To the light...I knew that my father was in there somewhere...behind the mask."  
  
"I am glad...that you could know...that you were right...Even though...I could not see it...I only wish...your sister could know..."  
  
"She will...I can't explain how I know...but she will..."  
  
"If only...I had acted sooner...In that one moment's hesitation...everything has been lost...the Jedi Order...will die..."  
  
"As long as the Force exists...the Jedi Order will live on...Leia...will find...a way..." Luke moaned in pain and his eyes clenched shut. "This...is...it...Good-bye...Father..." Luke's head slumped down into Anakin's lap.  
  
Anakin felt the life fade away from his son. Tears ran down his face. "Good-bye, Luke." Tears still falling onto his cheeks, Anakin laid down onto the floor and closed his eyes. He welcomed death.  
  
(In order to have a death, you must first live. And live I did. I lived when I was on Tatooine with my mother. I lived when I fell in love with Padme the moment I laid eyes on her. I lived when I moved to the Jedi Temple and became Obi-Wan's apprentice. Then when I finally became a Jedi Knight. I lived all the way up to the moment I gave into the dark side. That is when my life ended. When I stopped living.  
  
(Now I live again, only for a moment. I am thankful that I had the chance to say good-bye to my son. I consider myself lucky for that. Many who deserve much more than I have gotten much less. But.deserve it or not, it is time for me to leave it all behind.)  
  
There on the Deathstar, only moments before its destruction, laid the bodies of two of the greatest Jedi Knights who ever lived. Who ever would live. For though it would be hundreds of years before the Jedi Order would flourish again, it would never die out. Because there IS no death...there is only the Force.  
  
THE END 


End file.
